So many dead people....

[gravedigger]

When we went to the adoption clinic the pediatrician said the only drug abuse that would be a definite "no way" on was heroin. She's see meth babies that are completely normal within a couple months but heroin babies are fucked for life.

[Abraham Smashington]

heroin sucks

[B_Metal]

It's something we all know yet people keep trying it out. Da Fuq

[IggytheBorg]

Opium highs were supposed to be incredible. Since no one seems to be selling balls of opium, heroin as its most readily available derivitive would be the only way you can really go if you want to chase that dragon. I suppose you could do morphine or other opiate pharmaceuticals, but street drugs are often easier to get. If it's yer tipple of choice, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chance.

[BillyG]

It's an incredible high. I never felt anything like it when I was on dilaudid. I was a raging asshole between hits (and I was getting hits every 8 hours at least) and when they took me off of it I was a fucking tyrant. I could easily see it becoming an issue for me if I didn't have an insane fear of needles and also recognize the history of addiction in my family.

Addiction is a disease. It's not as easy as "he could get help" or "he's a selfish asshole." He probably was filled with depression and self loathing. He did try to get help, but it doesn't always work. A very tiny population wakes up one day and goes cold turkey, and that goes for almost anything that has become habit. Make it an addiction and it's near impossible.

As for it being a tragedy. It certainly is tragic, but no more or less tragic than anyone dying from an addiction. Not all tragedy has to be a terrorist attack that kills hundreds. Small scale human tragedy is something we all deal with in our lives. It's sad that the NYPD wants to make this into a PR opp to "find the supplier responsible" for this. That's nonsense. He was a beloved "every man" actor, and they can score brownie points. Instead of talking about helping people fighting addiction they talk about vengeance. That doesn't help anyone, especially the kid that hates everything in his life except that next oh so fucking good hit of heroin. Because it really fucking is good, and you don't care about anything else.

[Anderson]

It's an incredible high. I never felt anything like it when I was on dilaudid. I was a raging asshole between hits (and I was getting hits every 8 hours at least) and when they took me off of it I was a fucking tyrant. I could easily see it becoming an issue for me if I didn't have an insane fear of needles and also recognize the history of addiction in my family.

Addiction is a disease. It's not as easy as "he could get help" or "he's a selfish asshole." He probably was filled with depression and self loathing. He did try to get help, but it doesn't always work. A very tiny population wakes up one day and goes cold turkey, and that goes for almost anything that has become habit. Make it an addiction and it's near impossible.

As for it being a tragedy. It certainly is tragic, but no more or less tragic than anyone dying from an addiction. Not all tragedy has to be a terrorist attack that kills hundreds. Small scale human tragedy is something we all deal with in our lives. It's sad that the NYPD wants to make this into a PR opp to "find the supplier responsible" for this. That's nonsense. He was a beloved "every man" actor, and they can score brownie points. Instead of talking about helping people fighting addiction they talk about vengeance. That doesn't help anyone, especially the kid that hates everything in his life except that next oh so fucking good hit of heroin. Because it really fucking is good, and you don't care about anything else.

You don't buy 70 bags of heroin as a recognizable celeb and the opportunity for help doesn't arise.

[Abraham Smashington]

He's still an asshole. An addicted asshole who left 3 kids without a dad. Just saying.

[B_Metal]

He's still an asshole. An addicted asshole who left 3 kids without a dad. Just saying.

QFT

[BillyG]

You don't buy 70 bags of heroin as a recognizable celeb and the opportunity for help doesn't arise.

He's still an asshole. An addicted asshole who left 3 kids without a dad. Just saying.

QFT

There's opportunity for help for anyone with an addiction. It doesn't mean you can take it. That the addiction is weak enough for long enough to get you away from those 70 bags, away from the bottle, away from the pipe, away from that third pizza.

He was not an asshole. He was an addict. An addict that left behind three kids. Are you an asshole for developing schizophrenia when having three kids? No, you're not. They're both mental disorders that are incredibly difficult to fight. Some people fight it and come out the other side better, but most people don't.

[Abraham Smashington]

Most people don't have the resources or means to get help. he did. He's a selfish asshole addict.

That doesn't take away from his body of work, but he gets no sympathy from me. The same way most people don't lament about a normal dude who OD's because he's just a junkie.

[Abraham Smashington]

I mean, it's sad when someone dies but this is not a tragedy. It's just sad and could have been avoided.

[IggytheBorg]

A very tiny population wakes up one day and goes cold turkey, and that goes for almost anything that has become habit. Make it an addiction and it's near impossible.

This struck me. I was just talking about the following story t a Super Bowl party w/ a friend who's trying to quit smoking cigarettes. I smoked on & off for the better part of 15 yrs. I had quit for 4-5 of those years, but then started again when my stress level got ridiculous after a failed romance. After that, I tried quitting several times w/ the aid of nicotine gum. Never lasted more than a few months before some stressor had me crawling back to it.

An uncle of mine who had moked for over 30 years told me that he quit when he woke up one day, smoked the last cigarette in his pack, & just decided "I don't want to do this anymore." And he didn't. Just like that. No gum, no patch, no hypnosis. .. nothing. & no appreciable withdrawl, he claimed.

Bullshit, I thought. But when I quit this last time, which I truly feel will be for good, the same shit happened. I just decided "Fuck this. I'm done." And I quit. I used the gum again for awhile, but didn't even really need it. I still have most of it stashed in a drawer somewhere. I don't think I'm anything special, mind you. I continually marvel at the fact this happened, & I have no explanation for it. All the OTHER times I quit before that I had serious cravings & frequent relapses. I'm at a loss to explain why this one was different.

[B_Metal]

I'm curious, is one an addict before or after they choose to take that first hit? I'm not trying to be a jerk about it but fuck man, HEROIN?

[BillyG]

I'm curious, is one an addict before or after they choose to take that first hit? I'm not trying to be a jerk about it but fuck man, HEROIN?

People tend to have addictive personalities or not. It doesn't have to be drugs. Think about people that refuse to play games like Magic because their addictive personality will send them to spend the rent money to buy more cards. That's the mental part of addiction. Depression factors into this heavily too.

The physical part comes into play big time with heroin. The pain you go through when it's taken away is intense. Take what Iggy said about smoking, then amp it up by about a billion. I cannot understate how fucking GOOD it feels, and how painful it is when you no longer have it.

[IggytheBorg]

That, and the fact you need to use a needle would be enough to keep me the fuck away from it, amazing high or no. But I think I tend to agree, one probably has the genetic and/or environmentally influenced personality traits for an addictive personality before one starts to use drugs, and if it weren't drugs it'd be something else one got addicted to. Although that having been said, I felt a strong physical addiction to the nicotine that I never felt for booze or anything else. Except maybe sex.